If the commission approves the plan, OG&E will install approximately 600,000 smart meters in its Oklahoma service area in the next three years. The company’s proposal will increase an average customer’s electric bill by about $2 per month for three years. The amount includes the costs for the Norman project, which the commission previously approved. The filing also includes the benefits of a $130m federal stimulus grant that helps offset costs to customers.
OG&E has already been given approval to install 42,000 smart meters in Norman. That approval also directed the company to conduct a study of in-home tools and rate plans to help determine how customers can benefit from the new technology.
Howard Motley, vice president of regulatory affairs at OG&E, said: “This technology is an integral component of our plan to avoid new fossil fuel generation until after 2020.
“Deploying this technology will help improve our operating efficiency, which helps us manage customer costs. It supports reliability and improves our outage response, which reduces the financial impact of long-term outages, and it establishes the foundation for delivering customers new tools to better manage their energy use.”
OG&E, a subsidiary of OGE Energy, serves approximately 777,000 customers in a service territory spanning 30,000 square miles in Oklahoma and western Arkansas.
